Simply put, as regular season games go, the Seahawks vs. 49ers matchup on Saturday night in Santa Clara, Calif., is as big as it gets.
All that’s on the line is the NFC West title, the No. 1 seed in the NFC playoffs and a bye in the wild-card round, which means needing to win only two home games to advance to the Super Bowl.
The loser falls to the No. 5 seed (Seahawks) or the 5 or 6 (49ers, based on whether the Rams win or lose against Arizona).
The loser would likely have to win three road games to get back to Levi’s Stadium and the Super Bowl on Feb. 8.
It’s like winning a playoff game, with the added bonus of home-field advantage.
As the Seahawks got on the field for first full practice of the week Wednesday, they said the task is to prepare the same as any other week.
“Typically we try not to make any game bigger than the other,” veteran defensive lineman Jarran Reed said. “We try to be 1-0 every week. But we know what’s at stake and who we’re playing. We’re not shying away from that. We know what we’ve got to do out there Saturday night.”
How big is it?
According to The Associated Press, the game is just the fourth time that the winner is guaranteed the No. 1 seed with a win.
The others were Detroit over Minnesota in 2024, Dallas over the Giants in 1993 and Dallas over Washington in 1979.
You might be asking about the Seattle-San Francisco game in 2019, when the 49ers held off a furious Seahawks rally to win 26-21 and get the top seed.
That game actually doesn’t qualify. The Seahawks entered the weekend with a chance to get the No. 1 seed if they won and Green Bay and New Orleans lost. By kickoff with the Packers and Saints winning, the most the Seahawks would have won was the NFC West title and the No. 3 seed.
Only three players on the 53-man roster played in the 2019 game — Reed, kicker Jason Myers and punter Michael Dickson. Cornerback Shaquill Griffin and safety Quandre Diggs, each on the practice squad, also played in the 2019 game.
This is new territory for most of the Seahawks.
But as a franchise, the Seahawks have been down this road before, playing a regular-season finale with significant stakes.
Here’s a look at a few:
1983
The Seahawks came close to the playoffs in 1978 and 1979 but didn’t play a game on the final weekend with the postseason on the line.
In year eight, Chuck Knox’s first as head coach, they finally did, matched up with New England at the Kingdome. Win, and they were in (New England also had a chance to get in with a win).
“People always remember the first,” guard Reggie McKenzie said. “There will be championships, hopefully, coming down the line for the club, but what will be remembered is the precedent set in 1983.”
That team indeed set a precedent, dominating the Pats from start to finish in a 24-6 win, creating three turnovers along the way.
They memorably beat Denver in the wild-card game the following week and Miami on the road in the divisional round before falling to the Raiders in the AFC title game.
1984
The first Seahawks game that had similar stakes to Saturday’s came in Knox’s second season, when a 12-3 Seattle team hosted a 12-3 Denver team in the regular-season finale (also on a Saturday).
The winner would win the AFC West and get a week off, the loser would have to play a wild-card game the next week.
“Hawk fans waited 9 years for this one,” roared the headline in The Seattle Times the day of the game.
Sadly for Hawks fans, John Elway completed a 73-yard pass to Steve Watson on the third play of the game to set up a quick Broncos TD, and the rout was on as Denver got revenge for a loss to Seattle a few weeks earlier. The Broncos won 31-14, consigning the Seahawks to the wild card.
1988
The Seahawks had a chance at the division title on the final weekend of the 1987 season with a playoff spot clinched, but lost at Kansas City 41-20.
The following year they had a chance to make amends with a winner-take-all game against the Raiders at the L.A. Coliseum. The winner would get a banner, the loser would go home.
Dave Krieg responded with maybe his finest game as a Seahawk, throwing for 410 yards and four TDs as Seattle had to keep holding off the Raiders to win 43-37.
“Champions of the AFC West will go on every résumé I write from now on,” guard Edwin Bailey said. “I’m proud.”
1999
In Mike Holmgren’s first season, the Seahawks had a chance to clinch the AFC West in a morning game against the Jets in New York. The Seahawks — who started the season 8-2 — were beaten soundly 19-9 and had to hope that the Raiders could beat the Chiefs in Oakland.
The Seahawks seemed doomed when K.C.’s Pete Stoyanovich lined up for a 44-yard field goal with the game tied at 38 on the final play of regulation. But the kick missed, the Raiders got the ball first in OT and went down and scored on a 33-yard Joe Nedney field goal to send Seattle to the playoffs.
“I would have liked to had gone kicking through the door, but we didn’t do that,” Holmgren said. “But I’ll take it.”
The Seahawks lost a home game to the Dolphins in the wild-card round the following week, the final game played in the Kingdome.
2010
The infamous battle for the NFC West pitting two 6-9 teams — the Seahawks and Rams — one of which, by NFL rules, had to qualify for the playoffs. Seattle, which had lost three straight games, won 16-6 behind 192 passing yards from Charlie Whitehurst, who was filling in for an injured Matt Hasselbeck, in one of only four starts he made as a Seahawk. Without that win, the Beast Quake run the following week against the Saints never happens.
2013-2014
The Seahawks ran away with the conference in 2005 and clinched the No. 1 seed in the second-to-last week against the Colts, who had already clinched the AFC’s top seed and played starters only sparingly.
That wasn’t the case in 2013 and 2014, when the Seahawks had to win the final game of the season each time to get the No. 1 seed.
The 2013 Super Bowl champs lost two games earlier in December at San Francisco and at home to Arizona that would have clinched the top seed before beating the Rams at home 27-9 to secure it.
“It would have been really sad if we didn’t get that done,” said linebacker Malcolm Smith, whose 37-yard pick-six in the first quarter jump-started the win.
The following year, the Seahawks trailed Arizona in the standings most of the season, but they beat the Cardinals in Glendale 35-6 in the second-to-last game to take over the top spot, and clinched it with a win the following week at home, again against the Rams, this time 20-6.
2019
As noted, by kickoff the Seahawks knew the best they could do is win the NFC West and get the No. 3 seed. For the 49ers, it was either the top seed or No. 5.
The 49ers took an early 13-0 lead and led 26-14 with 5:51 left before the Seahawks scored on a TD pass from Russell Wilson to DK Metcalf. They used a penalty to force a punt and got the ball back and drove to the 1 on a fourth-down pass to John Ursua that was almost a TD.
Four plays later on another fourth down, a Wilson pass to Jacob Hollister came up just inches short when 49ers linebacker Dre Greenlaw hit him at the goal line.